Exploring Influence on Identity in Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For

Imagine being born in a place where people don't mix with one another and keep to their own kind. Imagine not being able to walk into a store because it is white owned. How would it feel if you were black, lived in a city that was run by a white government, where poverty, unemployment and lack of education were all problems of everyday life? If everyone were treated equally, then it would not be a problem. But for inner city African Americans that isn't the case. As humans, there is only so much we can take when it comes to segregation before we act out. There is only so much hate a person can take before letting it be known, once a person is pushed over that threshold there is no holding back. Overwhelming hate and anger with

America is a nation “from many, one” as stated in our country’s original motto. We pride ourselves on the granted equal opportunity and freedom afforded to each citizen. But are these premises held true and adequately carried out? My answer is a resounding no! Our country’s intricate history provides us with the foundation that explains why and how discrimination has infiltrated and given the upper hand to the white race that has dominated the American society, while suppressing races of color. Dating back to the discovery of the new world we know as the contemporary United States, the African American race has been segregated and mistreated as exemplified through

The city, Toronto in this case, presents a web of streets and geographical space that threatens to lock its citizens in a certain demarcated way of life and conduct. The four key characters in this narrative - Tuyen, Carla, Jackie, and Oku - each feel blocked in by the constrained locality that they have been born into and each attempts to escape it in his own way.: Tuyen by being an artist, Carla by being a courier; Oku by being a student and Jackie by working in a store. The first two not only attempt to escape by means of their profession using their profession to either flee the spaces and squares (by bike) or transcend it via imagination (by art) but they also adopt profession that go against societal expectations. These societal expectations were created by, and exist within the geographical space they live in. Toronto of the late 20th century had an internalized set of expectations for immigrants and its citizens. The parents of the characters succumbed to it. The protagonists, however, resolved to step out of their boundaries and most of them succeeded.

We have all sat through multiple history classes and learned about slavery, segregation, and the Civil War. We have all seen brutal movies and presentations based on racial injustices and the lack of equality. So often, we forget that these issues are still so present in our community. Slavery is illegal in the United States but other forms of racial profiling, insensitivity, and racism continue to be a recurring social barrier. Racism is still very much alive. The United States is “equal” yet somehow segregated. There isn’t quite a quick fix to this problem. Clearly, this has been an ongoing issue and requires major progression in our personal global

Racism throughout time has had a powerful negative force in society. There have been many efforts made to relieve racism. Racism is still present in America, although many people are doing their best to put a stop to racism and its somewhat devastating effects on young black males in society. “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” (Lee) The negative stereotypes and racial profiling that Americans hand down from generation to generation are damaging not only to the minorities but to those perpetuating them as well. The behaviors that are kept alive because of these negative stereotypes and the behaviors associated with them, create an emotional and social struggle as well as presenting obstacles when receiving an education and employment opportunities.

In our era today, as you proceed through life, there is discrimination against races. As much as we would like to witness things change for the better we won’t due to some people not taking the chance to rewire their hatred. But in the early 1900’s, some black middle-class families immigrated to Harlem, New York, which at the time was an upper-class white neighborhood. The White’s tried to kick the African Americans out, but ultimately failed. In 1910-1930 African Americans in Harlem have changed what the city was like back then, now it is known for its African American culture. They also created a period called the Harlem Renaissance that is considered a golden age in African American culture. This was a time when they had an artistic explosion,

On August 20th, 2016, The New York Times published an article titled “Affluent and Black, and Still Trapped by Segregation” written by John Eligon and Robert Gebeloff. The article discusses why wealthy African Americans choose to live in poverty-stricken areas as opposed to wealthier areas (Eligon and Gebeloff). The writers John Eligon and Robert Gebeloff clarify issues that most Americans would not see, such as children losing their sense of culture in more upscale communities (Eligon and Gebeloff). Culture is what separates different backgrounds of people around the world, and it is vital for everyone to have their own culture that we can learn from. When African Americans culture becomes infringed upon, they take the necessary precautions

She trekked forward, valiantly, against the aloof, inhospitable environment. Around her, she witnessed as the rudimentary surroundings drove individuals away as if it never wished for accost. Despite this she continued to trudge forward, despondently, waiting for a sign-- anything to warn her if she ought to continue or if she ought to give up. Eventually, she persisted. Ann Petry, in her novel The Street, explores the dynamic relationship between Lutie Johnson and the unfriendly urban setting through the articulate use of dramatic personification and vivid imagery as a metaphor for the uncertainty that ensues when relocating in a new, diverse, and vastly dissimilar environment.

Just fifty years ago, America was a society of segregation and racism. The dictionary defines racism as “the belief that a particular race is superior to another.” Although it is clear times have changed, racism is still seen in modern american society. It’s also clear that relationships between African Americans and whites are generally better than they were in the forties and fifties. Today, it is rare to witness a black man walk down the street and step off the sidewalk to let a white man walk by, or to see a black man sitting on a different section of the bus or train because a white man told him he has too. But superiority of races is still happening. A lot of this has the do with the ignorance of others. Passed down generation to

When white Americans choose to self-educate about systemic racism they can become allies in the fight to dismantle racist structures in our society. Systemic racism is a theory that “takes a look at how individual, structural, and institutional forms of racism intersect, overlap, and create a deep-rooted form of prejudice and discrimination that advantages a cultural group at the expense of others in all institutions of a society - economics, political representation, the criminal justice system, employment, and many others.” (Luther College 2015). This includes discrimination affecting credit, schooling, justice, residential location, etc. It can be eradicated in the next century, but not without white people acknowledging that it is a real issue that cost lives. It is not the duty of the oppressed to make a liberty sales pitch to their oppressors. However, it is the responsibility of those benefiting from the oppression of others to become educated, listen, and use their privilege to combat injustice. Asian, Latino, Black, and First Nations people respectively do not experience white supremacy in the same ways. Throughout this essay I will focus on the systemic racism targeted at Black people, using the term “People of Color”, coined by Black Feminists in the 1970s, abbreviated to PoC, to refer to them.

The United States, even though considered the land of freedom, has been struggling with lingering racism and discrimination throughout the 19th and 20th century. Democratic reform throughout the century were implanted to eliminate the “tyranny of the white majority” Yet many scholars like Tocqueville, Fredrick Harris and WEB DuBois have challenged these results. The reality is that the tyranny of white majority has continued throughout the 18th to the 21st century resulting in a society that has suppressed and constantly failed to integrate African American into the white society by neglecting the race, using natural prejudice, race neutral policies, and laws that benefited whites more than African Americans.

Before 1960s, Black people were legally discriminated against and even today they are still treated unfairly. This piece is provided to contextualize a specific sector that Blacks are discriminated against historically, in person, and over the phone now. This piece is meant to spark a conversation for African Americans to think about other instances where they put on a “white voice” and to think about how in other ways they are discriminated against in that sector. It also allows white people, who are up for conversation, to realize the biases they are placing on people by not only how they look, but even how they sound over the phone. This piece isn’t meant to end housing discrimination, but to be a conversation starter for both parties on

Understanding that the function behind America’s structure and systems isn’t meant for people to be treated equal is helpful. Yes, America holds many racist values/traditions, which is why many, increasing, “find it incongruous to ask black people to adopt and support most of those values. We also reject the assumption that the basic institutions of this society must be preserved. The goal of black people must not be to assimilate into middle-class America, for that class—as a whole—is without a viable conscience in regards humanity. The values of the middle class permit the perpetuation of the ravages of the black community. The values of that class are based on material aggrandizement, not the expansion of humanity” (Ture, 40). Ture contends that such a class system doesn't "lead to the creation of an open society" (40). As a solution, the existing structures are of no use, and the new structures have to “replace those forms or to make them responsive. There is nothing sacred or inevitable about old institutions; the focus must be on people, not forms" (Ture,

In the beginning of his essay, Takaki explains why Asian Americans might seem superior within society and how this assumption has caused African American resentment towards Asian Americans. Takaki (1990) states, “Most Asian Americans live

In today’s society it causes no alarm for people of various ethnicity to sit on a barstool at any counter and be served. When patrons walk into a public place, there are no signs that so white’s only or colored anymore. Yet, only a very short time ago in 1954 Brown v. Board of Education outlawed segregation in the public education facilities. Even though being served at a restaurant or using the same restrooms has changed in the last 50 years, it has not erased the racism that so many people still face as James Baldwin did in “Notes of a Native son.”